Keeping cats indoors is a rare solution where everybody wins | Calla Wahlquist
www.theguardian.com
In the debate over protecting native wildlife from domestic felines, one thing is often overlooked: cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats

I am not here to make the case that cats should be kept indoors for the sake of local wildlife – that case has been made over and over and over and over again. Cat owners know these arguments, and if they have not been persuaded by the fact that cats kill more than 6 million native animals in Australia a day they will not be persuaded by me.

There is a fairly tedious assumption that if you love wildlife you must hate cats, and visa versa. And nothing will turn cat people off faster than encountering a person who hates cats.

I understand this. I also hate people who hate cats. So let’s set the birds and the bettongs to one side for the moment, and consider the other, obvious fact: cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats.

  • Instigate
    735·
    1 year ago

    Cat owner and avid environmentalist here: totally agree. I’ve always kept my cats inside for the obvious environmental reasons, but ask any vet and they’ll tell you that indoor cats lead much longer, healthier lives.

    We need to start treating dogs and cats the same way - if there’s a cat around without it’s owner and it’s not leashed, it goes to the pound. $250 fee to retrieve your cat to pay for boarding and also donate to the pound that receives them. If people had to pay $250 and drive all the way to the pound to pick up their cat every time they let them out, I can tell you that outdoor cat owners will go one of two ways: they’ll either stop owning cats (big win) or they’ll keep them inside (also big win).

    • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world
      51·
      1 year ago

      How do you deal with a cat that’s used to roaming?

      We have one indoor only cat but the other one was a feral kitten we found and we have never been able to contain them without them going nuts, which makes the indoor cat miserable too.

      • Kangie@lemmy.srcfiles.zip
        6·
        1 year ago

        Time, in my experience.

        I’ve rehabilitated several feral cats, each older than 2 years. It just takes a few weeks to adjust.

      • Instigate
        31·
        1 year ago

        That’s a hard one because I’ve never experienced it before myself. I guess it depends on what you mean by ‘going nuts’. My assumption is that the longer you keep them inside, the more they adapt to the lifestyle and the easier it will become. You could also build a cat run / outdoor enclosure for them, or leash and harness train them to go on walks. I’ve had good experiences with using feliway to help calm cats too - that may help. If the issue is that the kitten is territorial, then it might help to set up a private area for them and ensure that they have their own separate litter box that other cats can’t use.